Sequences, Scripts, and Subject Pronouns in the Construction of Chinese Heritage Identity

Drawing upon language socialization and conversation analysis, this chapter examines how different displays of and reactions to certain acts and stances construct different identities and relationships in the context of Chinese heritage language classrooms. It details the interactional processes through which the participants' identities come to be constituted, (re-)enacted, modified, negotiated, or rejected. Specifically, it focuses on repair sequences, the choice of scripts, and the use of pronouns in teacher-student interactions that construct various affective stances of certainty or uncertainty, knowledgeability or unknowledgeability, affiliation or disaffiliation, which in turn are constitutive of participant identities of expert/novice, teacher/students, Chinese, American, Chinese American, Taiwanese Chinese American, or Mainland China Chinese American.